Mindscan

"The what?" But then I smiled. "No, just pulling your leg. My mom subscribed when I was a kid."

But the joke had bothered her, I could tell. "It's not history that separates us; it's culture. We grew up reading different magazines, different books. We watched different TV shows. We listened to different music."

"So what?" I said. "Everything's online." I smiled, remembering our earlier discussion. "Even copyrighted stuff — and the owners get micropayments automatically when we access it, right? So we can download your favorite books and all that, and you can introduce me to them. After all, you said we've got all the time in the world."

Karen looked intrigued. "Yes, but, well, where would we start?"

"I'd love to know what TV shows you watched growing up."

"You wouldn't want to see old stuff like that. Two-dimensional, low-res … some of it even in black-and-white."

"Sure, I would," I said. "It'd be fun. In fact" — I gestured at the bedroom's giant wall screen — "why don't you pick something right now? Let's get started."

"You think?" said Karen.

"Yeah," I said, trying to copy her imitation of this Alanis person's voice, "I really do think."

Karen's lips moved strangely — perhaps she was trying to purse them as she considered. Then she spoke to the suite's computer, accessing some online repository of old TV shows. And, a few moments later, white letters were appearing on the wall screen, one at a time, spelling out words, while a drum was beating in the background: THE…

Karen seemed quite excited as she sat up in the bed. "Okay, I've jumped ahead to the opening credits just so you'll get the background — then we'll go back and watch the teaser."

…SIX MILLION…

"Okay," she said. "See that guy in the cockpit? That's Lee Majors."

… DOLLAR MAN.

Karen went on. "He's playing Steve Austin, an astronaut and test pilot."

"How old is this show?" I asked, sitting up as well.

"This episode is from 1974."

That was … Christ, that was as many years before I was born as … as Dad's collapse was before today. "Was six million a lot then?"

"It was a fortune."

"Hunh."

There was crosstalk between pilots and ground control overtop of the images on the screen. "It looks good at NASA One."

"Okay, Victor."

"Landing rocket arm switch is on. Here comes the throttle…"

"See," said Karen, "he's testing an experimental aircraft, but it's about to crash. He's going to lose an arm, both legs, and an eye."

"I know some restaurants he couldn't eat at," I said. I waited the perfect comic beat.

"They cost an arm and a leg."

Karen whapped me lightly on the forearm as the little test aircraft dropped from the wing of a giant airplane. The craft looked like a bathtub — no wonder it was going to crash. "Anyway," she said, "they replace his missing limbs with super-strong nuclear-powered duplicates, and they give him a new eye with a twenty-to-one zoom and the ability to see infrared."

More crosstalk: "I've got a blowout, damper three…"

"Get your pitch to zero."

"Pitch is out! I can't hold altitude!"

"Correction: Alpha hold is off. Trim selectors, emergency!"

"Flight Com, I can't hold it. She's breaking up! She's brea—"

The bathtub somersaulted across the screen, in very grainy footage. "That's actual archival film," said Karen. "This crash really happened."

Something that I guessed was supposed to look like computer graphics appeared on the screen — apparently they drilled a hole all the way to the back of Steve Austin's skull to put in his artificial eye — and soon the rebuilt human was running on a treadmill. I read the boxy numbers on its display. "Sixty kilometers an hour?" I said, disbelieving.

"Better," said Karen grinning. "Sixty miles an hour."

"Did he get insects spattered all over his face, like cars do on their windshields?"

Karen laughed. "No, and his hair never gets mussed either. I had posters of him in my bedroom when I was a teenager. He was gorgeous! "

"I thought you were into that Superman guy, and — what was his name — Tom something?"

"Tom Selleck. Them, too. I had more than one wall, you know."

"So this introduction to your culture is going to be one teen heartthrob after another, is that it?"

Karen laughed. "Don't worry. I also used to watch Charlie's Angels — I had my hair like Farrah Fawcett's when I was seventeen. I'll show you one of those next time; you'll like it. It was the first jiggle show."

"Jiggle?"

She snuggled close to me. "You'll see."

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